Key to Reading Unit 19

1. If practice is prolonged it becomes natural (lit. comes into nature) (practice makes perfect).

2. The saying of Libys could be right; for when he was asked what particularly fattens a horse, he said, 'Its master's eye.'

3. A man would/will say that it is easy to censure, but to do what is needed with respect to the present situation is (lit. this is) the part of an adviser.

4. He is afraid of his own shadow.

5. 'Tis indeed sweet when one has been saved to remember one's troubles.

6. Everything that is majestic always (lit. all majestic things) incurs (lit. has obtained) envy.

7. The wallet of a beggar cannot be (lit. is not) filled.

8. Not even Ares can stand against necessity.

9. But if it were possible for those who weep to cure their troubles and [for] the dead to rise up by weeping (lit. by tears), gold would be a lesser possession than weeping. But, as it is, old man, this is impossible, [viz] to lead [back] to the light (sc. of day) the man who has been hidden in his tomb. (Sophocles fragment 557)

10. This is the one thing to know first of all, [viz] [how] to bear what befalls [one] without resentment (lit. not resentfully); this man (i.e. the man who knows how to do this) is best, and his misfortunes sting [him] less. We certainly know how to say this, but to do it is hard. (Euripides fragment 572)

11. A sweet life and/or base cowardice could never restore a house or a city (lit. could restore neither .. nor..).

12. I would not betray a friend even when (lit. although) dead.

13. Wine drove me out of my mind; I admit that I do you wrong, but the wrong was not deliberate.

14. How could the man who manages his own life badly save any of those outside?

15. Always put aside travelling money for old age.

16. If you put no trust in enemies you will never suffer harm.

17. No-one knows what you think, but [everyone] sees what you do.

18. When you receive a favour remember it, and when you give one forget it.

19. Know thyself (i.e. your limitations as a human being).

20. The good man might one day become bad, but the bad man could never become bad; for he is always.

21. If anyone rises up against the people with a view to [establishing] a tyranny, or helps to establish a tyranny, or overthrows the Athenian people or the democracy at Athens, whoever kills the man who has done any of these things shall be free from pollution (lit. let the man who....be free of pollution).

22. Polus: At any rate, I imagine, the man who is unjustly killed (lit. dies) is pitiable and wretched.

(c) Gavin Betts, Alan Henry 2001